A Fall River man is on trial this week for the October 2009 murder of 40-year-old Ervin Millsap on East Main Street.

Attorneys said the trial will boil down to two eyewitnesses who identified Juan Velazquez, 22, formerly of 248 Globe St., as the gunman who fired several shots - killing Millsap and wounding another man - near the corner of East Main and Peckham streets around 4 a.m. on Oct. 25, 2009.

“It’s an identification case,” said Assistant District Attorney Dennis Collins, who is prosecuting the trial with Assistant District Attorney Michael Cahillane.

Defense attorney John J. Connors said the eyewitnesses’ descriptions of the suspect’s clothing did not match the defendant. Connors also said another witness who testified that she saw the gunman from outside her apartment window identified another individual as the assailant. Beer bottles found near the crime scene and tested for fingerprints also did not link Velazquez, Connors said.

“It’s a tragedy that the person was killed. But this is a mistaken identity. It was not our client that did the shooting and I think the evidence will show that by the end of the trial,” Connors said.

Testimony began Tuesday in Fall River Superior Court. The trial is expected to conclude by late next week.

On Thursday, jurors heard forensic evidence from detectives who collected seven shell casings at the crime scene. Prosecutors also introduced a couple of minutes of surveillance video footage taken from a nearby business that showed two men running from the crime scene. Prosecutors previously said that Velazquez’s face is shown in the surveillance video.

Ballistics experts and police officers are expected to testify Friday.

Prosecutors also expect to present testimony about an earlier incident between the witnesses and defendant, as well as evidence regarding the recovery of the alleged murder weapon in Providence.

Velazquez is charged with murder, assault to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, carrying firearm without a license and carrying a firearm with ammunition. He pleaded not guilty to all charges at his Jan. 25, 2010, arraignment.

Millsap died at the scene from a single gunshot wound to the head while his friend, Alfred Coursey, who testified this week, was shot in the hand, abdomen and thigh. Coursey told The Herald News in 2009 that the shooting was sparked when he and Millsap confronted a group of people who yelled a racial slur at them.

At that point, one of the individuals pulled out a gun and started shooting, said Coursey, who is black.

“When they dropped the N-bomb, that is what sparked everything,” Coursey told The Herald News.

Millsap and Coursey arrived home a little after 4 a.m. that night. The apartment across the street from where they parked, 188 E. Main St., had held a party on the third floor and a group of Hispanic men were gathered outside the apartment when Coursey and Millsap drove up, prosecutors said.

Page 2 of 2 - Witnesses reported hearing seven to eight gunshots. Neighbors and friends remembered Millsap as a loyal, dedicated friend who enjoyed playing chess, worked hard at his job at Spectrum Lighting and was a loving father and husband to his wife and three children.